Center News and Notes

Communication Professor Fred Turner has been studying the role of art and countercultural movements – including the communal, participatory lifestyle celebrated at the annual Burning Man festival – that have had far-reaching influence in the workplace of tech firms. This October, he will present his scholarship for the Center’s ArtsWest Initiative.

It's hard work writing grant applications for California parks, writes Trust for Public Land intern Whitney Francis, but it's like climbing a mountain. “When I get to the top, I remember why it’s all worth it.”

Even when California ISO staff don’t suit up as superheroes, writes the intern Carlos Ciudad-Real, ”they are still performing heroics by crafting policy for arguably the most important energy entity in the West.”

A look at the most detailed survey ever done of crops and land use in California. It covers nine million acres of land devoted to grapes, alfalfa, cotton, plums, you name it – food for people and animals all over the world.

“In a city known for Hollywood and good weather,” writes US Army Corps intern Maggie Wood, you wouldn't expect its “crown jewel” to be “42-acre abandoned rail yard filled with concrete, dust, and rusty nails.”

Colorado River cutbacks loom in 2020; some Arizona farmers may fight to avoid them; Phoenix learning to fight the “silent storm” of heat deaths; Native Nations run the last salmon cannery in British Columbia, and more of the best environmental journalism in the past month.

Desalination – the conversion of saltwater to freshwater – has been limited by high operational costs. A new device capable of turning desalination waste into commercially valuable chemicals could make the process cheaper and more environmentally friendly.